National Lithuanian cuisine: features, the best recipes and reviews

Today Lithuanian cuisine is known all over the world and is loved by many. Its distinctive features - simplicity, straightforwardness, laconic design of dishes, use of the most widespread products. This is what she is famous for.

But very few people know that along with the Lithuanian culinary school, there is also the Old-Lithuanian school. And they differ from each other in the same way as a peasant woman differs from a noble lady. Traditions of the Old Lithuanian cuisine were formed from the 14th to the 18th century, and today many of its wonderful recipes, unfortunately, are forgotten. It was aimed at noble gentlemen, at the court of which real feasts were arranged. In the case of the Old Belish cuisine, everything is as follows: it is characterized by a complex recipe, an abundance of ingredients bordering on excess, and for it are often the most daring combinations of products. Traditional Lithuanian cuisine is much more accessible and simple. Perhaps, some recipes will supplement your cookbook.

First meal

What to serve for dinner? We often answer this question quite clearly: hot, salted and liquid, preferably with meat. But the first dishes of Lithuanian cuisine are sometimes sweet. And some of them are served in a cold form. A recipe for sweet soup with dumplings is very popular.

To make it, boil a glass of water, add 4-5 prunes, a pinch of cinnamon and citric acid. To taste, fill with sugar. While the soup is boiling, mix the dough from one yolk and 2 spoons of flour. We form small dumplings, lower them into boiling soup. Serve this dish is recommended with sour cream. Prunes can be replaced with plums or apples.

Zrazy

If you decide to discover a phenomenon such as Lithuanian cuisine, recipes of tapestries will have to be mastered first. They are very common, unusual, diverse. The famous Lithuanian zepelinay was invented in the deep Middle Ages, and is more characteristic of the Old Polish cuisines, after all the powers were served at the best feasts. But his adapted recipe went to the people. In fact, it is a variety of sentences.

For cooking zepelina natrem on grater 15 raw and 3 boiled potatoes. Let's knead the dough, adding 1-2 eggs and a little rye flour to it. The filling is prepared from boiled beef (500 g). Formed zrazy boil in boiling water and served with sour cream and herbs.

Lithuanian national cuisine includes many recipes for meals. They are not only brewed in broth, but also fried in breadcrumbs, baked in an oven. Not always "wrap" is made from potatoes, although this recipe is most common. Often, the filling is wrapped in minced meat or a chop.

Popular varieties of stuffing: minced meat from boiled meat, hunting sausages, liver and boiled liver, forest mushrooms, smoked bacon, fat, mixed with bread smalets, whole or chopped eggs.

Meat Dishes

Many meat national dishes of Lithuanian cuisine have analogues among other national cuisines of the world. For example, the Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian recipes of the brawn or saltison are common. Lithuanians were preparing a roll of holovyne. For its preparation, cook the pig's head for 3-4 hours, adding spices and garlic to the broth. Then, after a little cooling, they take out the facial bones and fold the layers of meat with the skin into a roll.

With the help of twine and food film form the product and allow it to cool under the press for several hours. This roll is served chilled, thinly sliced into batch slices. To it perfectly approach sharp sauces with horseradish or garlic.

Vegetables

It can not be said that Lithuanian cuisine extols vegetables and uses them extensively, as, for example, the cuisine of the peoples of the Far East or the Mediterranean. Most often in recipes we meet onions, carrots, potatoes and beets. But Lithuanians, of course, prepare unusual snacks from fresh seasonal vegetables. Do you want something unusual, but without overseas delicacies? Prepare stuffed cucumbers in Lithuanian .

It is best to take fruits of small size. The number of ingredients depends on their size relative to each other. Cucumber, cut into halves along. A teaspoon carefully take out the flesh. Cooked carrots and beets are cleaned, cut into small cubes, mixed with chopped pulp, season with vegetable oil, sprinkle with salt, sugar and seasonings. If desired, you can add a few drops of lemon juice, chopped blue onion, chopped garlic. We fill the cucumber boats and serve them to the table.

Bakery products

Lithuanians are very fond of baked pies and casseroles in the oven. They are prepared with salty and sweet fillings. Baking Lithuanian cuisine is very diverse. If you want to master it, be sure to try to prepare the gingerbread "Meduolis".

By a glass of rye and wheat flour we sift, we pass on a dry frying pan. Add 400 grams of warm honey, carefully kneaded. We pour a tablespoon of vodka (preferably Lithuanian, with spices). To gingerbread were fragrant, add an incomplete teaspoon of ground ginger, a pinch of lemon zest, a couple of black peppercorns and 3-4 cloves. The dough should be thoroughly kneaded for at least half an hour. It will acquire the necessary plasticity and easy to unroll. Cut out curly gingerbread or simply cut into squares. Bake in a preheated oven for about 5 minutes.

Fish dishes

Lithuanian cuisine pays a decent place and fish dishes. Recipe "Burbot with mushrooms and cucumbers" may seem unusual, because more often we eat cucumbers without heat treatment. But in this dish they play an important game.

The leather is hard, it is better to remove it. The meat is carefully separated from the bone, we remove the insides. The liver of this fish is edible, the main thing is not to damage the gallbladder. Cut the fillet into portions, crumble in flour, fry in oil until half-cooked. Separately fry the onions and champignons cut into half rings. In a saucepan add a layer of onion, fish, thinly sliced cucumbers, and top with a mushroom and onions. Here we send the liver. Add a glass of broth and white wine, salt and pepper. You can extinguish this dish on a small fire or in an oven. To such a fish as a garnish boiled potatoes are perfect.

Dishes with mushrooms

In the Lithuanian cuisine there are many wonderful dishes with mushrooms. They stuff cakes, add to soups and borsch, stuff zrazy.

One of the most popular recipes is stewed morels. These mushrooms grow in the forest on the whole continent, and in Lithuania are considered a real delicacy.

Polylogram of morels is cleaned from the ground and impurities, soaked for an hour in water, thoroughly washed under a tap. Like all forest mushrooms, morels need preliminary boiling. Enough to let them paw for 10 minutes. The broth is drained, and the mushrooms are transferred to the wok, pour oil and fry. Sprinkle with flour (enough handfuls), add a glass of sour cream and stew. If the sour cream is too thick, you may need a little water. This dish is great for cereals.